The Mystery of the Dance
by matureskinsfan
Summary: Two Skins characters are dancing togther. But can you work out from the clues in the narrative who they are? This one-off 'story' is both a word game and a piece of creative writing. Do you want to try to solve the mystery of the dance?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Message**

**This is a one-off shot, not so much a story as such, more an atmospheric piece. It is a description of two Series 3 Skins characters dancing together in a club, but the question is: which two?**

**See if you can work out who they are from the fairly cryptic clues sprinkled around in the narrative! It's a word puzzle as well as a piece of creative writing. I've no idea if I've made it too easy or too difficult. If you want to play along, tell me who you think the characters are and why. No prizes, just a bit of fun!**

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**The pulsating, throbbing beat drives you on to dance even faster. **

**Relentlessly, ruthlessly. It is pounding and pounding. **

**In your head. **

**Like a sledge hammer****. **

**Like dynamite, a stick of dynamite. **

**Your head is spinning out of control, you feel punch drunk, as high as a kite.**

**You know there's no escape from the music's vice-like grip. It holds you as its prey and will countenance no mercy.**

**Your lungs feel like they're fit to burst, you long to catch your breath and cast aside the demons that are circling in your head. **

**But you are a prisoner to the sounds that echo all around you. **

**The noise has trapped you in its vortex of infinite space, spiralling and twisting you into near oblivion. **

**Alone, you could make a break for it, a dash for freedom and a release from all the madness that threatens you from every side. **

**But you are not alone.**

**Your partner, likewise captivated and hypnotised by the incessant rhythm, depends on you to stay. **

**You are as if chained together, destined to shadow each other's every movement. The two of you are in total synchronicity. **

**You brush seductively against one another; you exchange meaningful glances, sometimes the occasional smile. **

**You are as one, in perfect harmony.**

**You gyrate to the rhythm of the music, your hips swaying from side to side, suggestively, provocatively, in time to the beat. Arms raised high above your head, wrists crossed symbolically, you crave attention – and you deserve it. Look at me! Look at me! No-one else!**

**Beads of sweat bear witness to your exertions. Your partner advances, step by measured step, writhing, wriggling and seeking your approval. You show your admiration in your eyes. Two minds but with a single thought.**

**Suddenly a stranger tries to come between the two of you. An interloper, an infiltrator, he seeks to break down the walls you have put up around you. **

**Resentment, even contempt, rages within you at such treachery. **

**This is your own exclusive magic circle. **

**Entry is by invitation only.**

**No others are allowed to penetrate – without exception.**

**No like-minded soul, no lovers of the terpsichorean muse, no heart-stricken poet of the dance.**

**The two of you close ranks. A show of unified defiance despatches the intruder. **

**He retreats, head bowed, tail between his legs. He was not worthy of them. **

**Chests are swollen with pride at such glorious victory. The sanctity of the unit has been preserved. **

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**I shall reveal the identity of the characters in a few days time in a final chapter 2. But if you don't care who they are, that's fine. If you just want to review it as a piece of creative prose, great! Either way, I'm just trying out a different style. All comments will be welcome! **


	2. Author's Response

**Author's Message**

**I said I would get back to you after a few days and so here I am. I've loved reading the reviews of this piece so far – lots of thoughtful, well-argued and imaginative suggestions as to the identities of the two characters dancing together.**

**I said in my introduction that I had no idea if I had made it too easy or too difficult. It would appear that in one respect I made it too difficult or perhaps 'obscure' would be a better word. I said that this piece was partly a word game but I should have been more specific about the type of word game involved, which I acknowledge now was a mistake on my part.**

**What I actually did was to incorporate a few**** anagram**** clues of the two characters concerned within the narrative. There are a couple near the beginning, one towards the middle (very hard to spot) and then a couple near the end. If you want to have a bit of fun trying to spot them, that's great. But this anagram aspect was only intended to be a side issue, complementing the hints and suggestions in the body of the narrative. **

**Those of you who have reviewed the story so far have rightly focused solely on the literal text as I sadly gave you no proper indication that something else was involved as well. Having now pointed you all in another direction if you so wish to go there, I shall return in a few more days with the final answer to give people a bit of a chance to have a go at finding the anagram clues. Good luck!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Solution**

It's now time to reveal the answer to the mystery of which two Skins Series 3 characters were dancing in my 'story'. In fact there are two answers to the puzzle and, to my mind, there always were two completely different answers.

The first answer is that the two characters are in fact whichever two you imagine them to be, as one reviewer very perceptively picked up on. There really is no one single right answer, since each reader is free to interpret the story whichever way he or she chooses. The reader can argue that particular lines or images in the narrative conjure up an image of a certain person in his/her mind which may be completely different to how another reader sees it but that doesn't mean that one of you is right and the other one is wrong.

Everyone is entitled to take whatever they want out of a piece of creative work, be it a story, a poem, a song, a painting or whatever. If that is how they see it, if that is what it says to them, then who on earth has the right to tell them they have misunderstood what it is all about.

I threw in a few clues which I hoped would suggest various different characters from the series and was happy top leave it up to each individual reader to interpret the whole piece however they wanted.

For me, however, the couple dancing were **Emily and Katie,** although I was tempted initially to make it all about Emily and Naomi. The bits about being 'chained together' and the reference to an 'exclusive magic circle' were meant to hint at a very special relationship, one which still today carries a certain amount of mystery to a lot of people who will never know what it's like to have a twin.

Then I went and put in deliberately a couple of things which could have thrown people off the scent of that pairing like mentioning the couple 'brushing seductively against each other' and being 'in perfect harmony'. I tried to make as many combinations as possible all equally feasible without ruling out too easily any one combination –whether I succeeded or failed in this attempt is up to you to judge, but at least I gave it a go. The whole piece was outside my 'comfort zone' but then I wanted it to be; it was an experiment after all and most experiments go wrong at the beginning!

As for the anagram aspect of this piece, they were pretty difficult, I have to admit but here they are for those of you who tried to look for them;

Line 5 contains the words 'like dynamite, a stick of dynamite'. '**Like dynamite, a' **is an anagram of 'Emily and Katie.'

Line 6 ends with 'as high as a kite'**.' A kite' **is of course an anagram of 'Katie'.

Towards the middle there is a line that ends 'sometimes the occasional smile'. The next sentence begins 'You are as one…..' S**mile**. **Y**ou – you can now see 'Emily' contained in that – I accept that is ridiculously difficult and obscure!!

Finally, near the end are two anagrams of Megan Prescott and Katherine Prescott, the two actresses playing Katie and Emily. They are '**contempt rages' **and '**heart-stricken poet**'.

If any reader did find any of those anagrams, then seriously well done! I f you didn't, so what? It was only a bit of fun on my part and the least interesting point of the whole thing. If you enjoyed reading it that's great- I did it for a bit of a challenge and to do something different with the Skins characters. It probably didn't work as well as I would have liked, but that's normal. I f you don't try anything new, then you'll never learn anything, will you?


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